Arbeitspapier

The effect of maternal education on offspring's mental health

We estimate the causal effect of maternal education on the mental health of mother's children in late adolescence and adulthood. Theoretical considerations are ambiguous about a causal effect of maternal education on children's mental health. To identify the causal effect of maternal education, we exploit exogenous variation in maternal years of schooling, caused by a compulsory schooling law reform in West Germany. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find no evidence of a causal protective effect of maternal education on children's mental health. Instead, our empirical results suggest a moderate negative effect of maternal education on the daughters' mental health. We find no effects for the sons. Our investigation of potential mechanisms is consistent with the hypothesis that the negative effect of higher maternal labor supply outweighs the positive effect of an expansion in household resources.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 1028

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health: General
Analysis of Education
Returns to Education
Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
Subject
mental health
education
compulsory schooling reform
intergenerational mobility

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Graeber, Daniel
Schnitzlein, Daniel D.
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
(where)
Berlin
(when)
2019

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Graeber, Daniel
  • Schnitzlein, Daniel D.
  • Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)

Time of origin

  • 2019

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